The Oklahoma City Thunder are off to an 0-3 start with losses to the Golden State Warriors, Los Angeles Clippers, and Sacramento Kings. Suffice to say, this was not the start the team envisioned when they re-signed Paul George in the offseason and added Dennis Schroder to boost the bench. 

Not much has gone right for the Thunder in the past month. Russell Westbrook ended up missing training camp, preseason and the first two games of the season after getting his knee scoped in the middle of September. Andre Roberson, who is recovering from a ruptured patellar tendon, suffered a setback in his rehab and won’t be back until late November at the earliest. 

But still. How do you lose to the Kings at home on opening night? 

Here are three reasons the Thunder have three losses to start the season:

Slow Starts and Finishes

Oklahoma City has been outscored 51-29 in the first five minutes of the three games. That number looks worse thanks to a 16-4 run by the Clippers in their meeting, but we can’t act like that run didn’t exist. The Thunder have been slow out of the gates and it’s forced them to chase the game.

OKC has been outscored by an average of 5.7 points in the first quarter, the fourth worst margin in the league. Last year, they were third in the league in first quarter point differential, outscoring opponents by 2.4 points in the opening frame.

There’s no great explanation for their slow starts. The first two games they were missing Westbrook. He drives their offense and without him, one could reasonably expect that they would not have the same kind of success on that end of the floor. But defensively, they have looked out of sorts to begin games. The Warriors, Clippers, and Kings shot a combined 20-29 against the Thunder in the opening five minutes. 

They say that it doesn’t matter how you start, but how you finish.

The Thunder aren’t much better in that area either. They are dead last in point differential in fourth quarters, getting outscored by 10 points in the final 12 minutes. Once again, this was an area where they had success last year as the finished fourth in fourth quarter point differential in 2017-18.

Simply put, the team has to find a way to be better in the first and fourth quarters. 

Poor Three-Point and Free Throw Shooting

Close your eyes if you’re a Thunder fan. Alright, now re-open them because you can’t look at these numbers otherwise.

The Thunder are sixth in three-pointers attempted at 36.3 per game. In a league that trends more and more to outside shooting, their willingness to shoot from the outside isn’t a bad thing. 

Here’s where things get ugly.

They are are 27th in three-pointers made (8.7 per game) and dead last in three-point percentage (23.9 percent).

These are not contested attempts, either. Of their 36.3 attempts per game, 30 are considered open (closest defender within 4-6 feet) or wide open (closest defender 6+ feet away). Either they are generating great looks on offense or defenses have no respect for their shooters, so they are being left wide open.

It’s a little of both. 

Paul George, Patrick Patterson, and Alex Abrines are the only shooters who graded out as B or better in BBall Index’s grading system last season. Those three have shot a combined 29 percent from beyond the arc this season. It’s tough to be a good three-point shooting team when your three-point shooters aren’t hitting shots. 

The rest of the attempts from deep come from the likes of Terrance Ferguson, Jerami Grant, Schroder, and Westbrook. None of them are reliable or consistent options, no matter how much we were told “Russell Westbrook has been working on his three-point shot” during the offseason. 

Perhaps more alarming is their inability to convert free points. The Thunder rank fifth in free throw attempts per game with 30. They are second to last in percentage, hitting just 66 percent of their free throws. 

It’s tough to win games when you’re leaving free points on the board.

Terrance Ferguson

The numbers show that this team has more issues that extend beyond one player. But if fans were to single out one player, Ferguson would be the scapegoat. 

In the absence of Andre Roberson, someone had to fill in at shooting guard. As I laid out previously, Alex Abrines is the best option given his shooting and improvement on defense. But Billy Donovan likes to operate as if he is playing with a healthy roster and doesn’t want to mess up rotations. Thus, Abrines comes off the bench and Ferguson starts.

Here’s my scouting report on Ferguson: Bo Jackson’s athleticism with the confidence of me in high school. Sources will confirm that my confidence in high school was somewhere in the negatives.

He’s shooting 13 percent from the field this season and nine percent from three on 3.1 attempts per game. For reference, Andre Drummond is shooting 20 percent from three (2.5 attempts per game). Let that sink in. Andre Drummond, albeit on 0.6 less attempts per game, is a better shooter from three than Terrance Ferguson this season. Andre. Drummond. 

There’s no reason Ferguson should be on the floor, much less starting games. Hamidou Diallo, like Ferguson, is a 20-year-old with athleticism to burn. Unlike Ferguson, he plays with confidence and has a better feel for the game. 

Fans thought the Thunder played 4-on-5 on offense when Roberson was in the lineup. They may as well be playing 4-on-6 on both ends of the floor with Ferguson on the court.